Monday, April 12, 2010

Birthday Wishes

If my Monday’s are in perfect order, I have a lil routine that gets this email out on time. While I am still on schedule, I know that I have multiple pictures I want to share and that requires help from my resident photographer, so even though this may be late, I think it will be worth it. Plus I’m meeting Rach for a late lunch at a “deli” that I’m willing to try b/c of my love of deli’s but let’s be honest, nothing beats a good NY deli.

Let’s go back to where we left off… my birthday. Yes, it was delightful. Very strange not to be going to work or school—no meeting requests were sent out, no one to demand birthday wishes from. This meant that the Brand Awareness that had been built for T O’B was going to have to be tested without a big media push or direct marketing. I wasn’t nervous as much as resigned; it would be what it would be. And it was good (largely in part I’m sure to the subtle assistance that is FaceBook –Thanks Janette’s Boyfriend!) I got a really awesome cupcake bouquet from Becky. The card that came with it simply said “Freakin’ 1800Flowers didn’t give me enough room for my poem. Check your email.”

Dawne found out she was allergic to everything on the morning of my birthday. The tradition around here is that you get to choose your dinner place on your birthday so I of course demanded Eggs Cashew with a side of Shrimp—or Mac-n-Cheese and Ben and Jerry’s. I’ll let you decide what we ended up doing.

When I was talking to my sister on my birthday she was also trying to get her kids to go to sleep. Finally when Kyle came running to her to complain she stopped him and said “I’ll beat Kevin later, just go back to sleep.” Satisfied with that answer, Kyle promptly went to bed.

(I’m forcing this card to work for this subject… and I know it.)

I’m going to go back in time a bit. Before D&J left for Mexico Jordan pulled me aside and said “I know I’ve asked a lot from you, but while were gone, I need you to kill the mouse.” I told him this was not going to happen. I mean I killed the fish the last time they left town; I can’t kill the mouse too! And what the hell would I do with a dead mouse? (My mom suggested I put it outside and let an eagle take it… I didn’t but check out the cool Eagle shot from yesterday below). Then while they were gone I noticed I hadn’t seen Abominable in over 24 hours so I got nervous. Luke shook the cage and then we put on gloves and drew straws so to who was going to move the plastic igloo to see if she was dead. And just as I was wrapping up the telling of this story to Dawne telling her that she was not dead, on my birthday, Dawne said “well, she’s dead now.” Birthday rejoicing was had by all for the sad truth was Abominable was a sad lil mouse who led a miserable existence as she bled from the eyes and ears and was just so sickly that dying was the only happy news we got while she was with us. RIP “Bom.”

Naturally, the following day, Dawne’s Birthday, we went to the pet store to get new mice. Now I’m not a huge fan of the mice. For one, when Pudgy got loose in my room and I didn’t know at first if it was a pet mouse or a wild mouse that should be shoo’ed out my balcony door which emphasizes my position that perhaps mice should not be pets. Then when Pudgy persisted in living in my room for a month before I heard her try to sneak up by my pillows while I slept and had to run to Zach’s room where her cage was (and she followed me and promptly got into her cage) I knew that mice and I were not made to co-inhabit. Never-the-less, I was all for supporting Dawne and her pursuit of new playmates.

We got to the store and I spotted right away the mouse we needed and named her Spaz before she left the cage due to the fact that while the other 20 mice were sleeping, she was running around and then ran around trying to wake the others to play with her. The guy at the store pulled the other black one we wanted and had Dawne hold her while he tried to get Spaz. He pulled one lil mouse out and it wasn’t the right one so that mouse was crawling up his arm as he had a tube of 20 mice in the other hand and he looked at me to help and I definitively stated “oh no. I don’t touch mice. This is more of a spectator sport for me.” Had he not had his hands full, I think he would have hit me.

As we pulled into the driveway with our new friends we spotted at the door one beautiful bouquet and two teeny tiny bouquets—one for each of the mice welcoming to the Weisman family.

For my birthday I decided that I needed a fresh new outlook on life and threw myself a “Good Vibes for Good People” (which had nothing to do with sex toys people—dirty dirty minds.) I wanted to welcome in positive energy and good thoughts through alternative means, so this good Catholic girl gathered books on witchcraft, I-Ching, Voo-Doo (though that was very scary and I ended up promptly closing it and putting it on a shelf), Candle rituals, horoscopes, Tarot, reflexology) and the literal burning of our negative thoughts. I told my brother my plans and he said “Don’t you people know how to just get a keg?” If only I could be satisfied with such easy party plans. I got that cool flash paper from the magic store so we could write a negative thoughts and watch them flash and burn (I thought I bought copious amounts of paper… but apparently with all the bad drivers, aches and pains and other nuisances we had quite a lot to burn.) When I went in search for all of the materials I actually had to tell a sales clerk “yes. I need it for a spell.” During the enactment of one of the spells, Luke and I had to take some comingled wax and put it outside our door to which Luke said “I feel like we just littered.” This particular spell was to invite our soul mate into our lives at the new moon—So Jordan suggested we all go out and get all of our tomcatting out of the way in the next 30 days before he shows up.

Jen, in her amazing baking ways, made me an awesome cake. She first suggested a Ouija Board cake but I told her that that was the devils work, so we got a nice Crystal Ball instead… how cool is this?

I found out the next day, via Dawne to Cathy, that while I am always a “Happy Drunk” apparently my voice completely changes as it raises an entire octave and my New York accents becomes so pronounced that Dawne thought she might be talking to Stacey. How did I not know this about myself?

Let’s see in other news, I got into the pool for the first time since November… and it was phenomenal. We had an in-depth conversation pool side, which makes me wonder if all great thoughts aren’t found in the shower as much as while surrounded by water.

Before D&J went to Mexico, Dawne and I had handmade 150 invitations for my aunt and uncles 50thanniversary. While they were in Mexico, I realized that we had put the wrong date on the invitations, and not one to live with that information alone, I immediately imparted the information to the vacationers—so now we have are back to re-making them… FUN!

And lastly—we all went to I-HOP, followed by a trip to the Tulip Festival which is always beautiful, and always looks the same, followed by a nap for me on the way back which was interrupted several times with phone calls one which was Jen and I have no idea what I said to her so I had to wait until an hour after I woke up to call and apologize. Lord knows I am not a pleasant person when you wake me up, followed by an encore presentation of How to Train Your Dragon…talk about a really lovely day! Here are some highlights:

I know this was long and picture happy—but don’t you feel like you were there now? It’s almost better than having to really celebrate with me!